Neither walking nor sitting: keep the mind in ordinary activity
Carry the practice into everything you do, following the mind as it arises in walking, working and talking.
Warum es wirkt
Zhiyi lists four kinds of samādhi. The fourth, “neither walking nor sitting,” is not confined to a posture: the text says it in fact covers walking, sitting and all activities, and Nanyue called it “following one’s own mind.” Its principle is that whenever a thought or intention arises, the practice of samādhi is performed on it. The mind is trained not by leaving the day behind but by seeing each arising within it.
So gehst du vor
- Choose one ordinary activity for the day, such as washing up, walking to a shop, or a conversation you expect to have.
- Before starting, make a short stop: feel the feet or the hands, and let the breath settle for a few breaths.
- During the activity, notice the first intention that arises, for example to hurry, to complain or to look away.
- When you notice it, hold it for a breath with the same light attention you used in the adjustments, then return to the activity.
- At the end of the day, recall which moments of intention you caught, and which you missed.
Evidenz
The text states the fourth samādhi as including walking, sitting and all activity, and as the practice of samādhi carried out on whatever intention arises (Mo-ho chih-kuan vol. 2). Modern research on mindfulness programs, reviewed by Goyal and colleagues, found moderate evidence for reduced anxiety and depression and for pain relief, but these were structured programs, not this daily practice, and the review did not test the Tiantai form. (anecdotal)
No study has tested the neither-walking-nor-sitting practice on its own. The Goyal review concerns meditation programs in general and is cited for context only.
Quellen
- Zhiyi. Mo-ho chih-kuan (摩訶止觀, T1911), vol. 2 (上), Chinese text on Chinese Wikisource. Sections on the four samādhis (常坐, 常行, 半行半坐, 非行非坐) and the Lotus samādhi.
- Goyal, M., Singh, S., Sibinga, E. M. S., Gould, N. F., Rowland-Seymour, A., Sharma, R., et al. (2014). Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Internal Medicine, 174(3), 357–368.
Häufiger Fehler
Turning daily life into a list of moments to fail at. The practice is to notice intention, not to police it; catching a thought late is still catching it.
Übe das mit IX Coach
Weitere Übungen für Zhiguan: Tiantai Buddhism’s Calming and Contemplation Meditation
- Adjust the body, breath and mind before sitting
Before settling into stillness, bring the posture, the breath and the mind into balance as three adjustments used together.
- Stop the mind by tying it to the nose-tip or the navel
Fix attention on one point: the tip of the nose when the mind sinks into dullness, the navel when it floats off into restlessness.
- Contemplate one moment of mind as empty, provisional and middle
Take one thought as the object and see it as empty of fixed nature, provisional in its working, and middle in holding both at once.
- The ninety-day and seven-day forms: walking, sitting and half-and-half
Zhiyi’s intensive samādhis of constant sitting, constant walking and half walking, half sitting: traditionally undertaken under a teacher.
- The Lotus repentance: a ritual of confession for the six senses
The Tiantai Lotus samādhi: a ritual in a prepared space, with offerings, prostrations, and confession of the six sense-doors.
Verwandte Konzepte
- Shamatha: Die buddhistische Praxis der ruhigen Verweilung
Den Geist zur Ruhe trainieren: die neun Stufen und ihre modernen neurologischen Parallelen
- Śūnyatā: Emptiness and the Two Truths in Madhyamaka
Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way: why nothing has a fixed essence, and why that is not the same as nothing
- Nichiren Buddhism and the Daimoku: Chanting the Title of the Lotus Sūtra
A devotional path built on one sūtra and one phrase, described across the schools that practise it
- Vipassana-Meditation, ganz praktisch
Einsicht, Gleichmut und der Körper-Scan-Ansatz zur Befreiung von Reaktivität